AKG Acoustics
K 601
Headphones

Product Description

Oh how hard life must be when you’re designed to be a contender, but not to come in first. The K601 is an absolutely marvelous headphone, well controlled and dynamic, evenly balanced and spacious sounding. But it falls slightly short of being first class by lacking in refined resolving power. Though the highs are clear and simple sounding without being strident, they are also slightly withdrawn sounding, lacking the articulation of the finest details that would be found in reference class cans. This is only half bad because when most cans fail in this region it is replace harsh or over-bright highs. The K601 seems simply to be missing this particular category of sound. Frankly, we can’t think of a better way to fall short and still stay in the race. These cans are particularly recommended for those who love a dynamic sounding phone but hate any scratchiness. Patented varimotion diaphragm and high-performance neodymium magnet system for minimum distortion
Two-layer diaphragm for highly accurate sound and superior transient response
Self-adjusting, genuine-leather headband for optimum comfort
Individually tested and numbered
Perfect wearing comfort. Self-adjusting, genuine leather headband for automatic fit and optimum wearing comfort
Acoustically comfortable optimized ear pads and washable and easy to replace
True bi-wiring cable

User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Timothy46
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: April 15, 2010

Bottom Line:

Before these AKG K601 headphones i was using around 10 years old Philips Monitor Reference headphones which sounded great but they are uncomparable to this fine model of AKG.
First of all you notice how precise they are made, qulity is outstanding at this price point.
They are huge, but they are very comfortable so you can wear them for hours which is very important if you like to relax and listen to some qulity music.

So here we come to the most important charateristic which is how they sound. One word to describe it is excellent. They are incredibly detailed with a powerful sound, for me bass mids and highs are as perfect as they could be, i wouldnt add nothing.
They have a very open sound, if you are looking for extreme precision and a lot of details i would highly recommend these headphones.

This sound comes at a price which is a fairly big resistance(120ohm) so they are very hard to drive. They arent loud enough with any mp3 players phones or integrated pc sound cards, i run them with Asus Xonar Essence stx and there are no problems.

Just an amazing headphone. The sound is just lush, 3-dimentional, and totally invoving without being fatiguing. I hear the air around instruments and they throw up an incredibly wide and deep soundstage.
Involving headphone that makes it interesting to listen to genres of music that I would not have tried previously.

I plug them directly into my integrated amplifier NAD or CD Player Marantz (that's right, no external amp) and I'm very happy with the sound. Very comfortable for me to wear for extended hours. The sound is just fine.

Its "light and airy" nature give up a great deal of texture and detail, BUT a pure and precise bass is very present !

My K601 has replaced my Grado SR60 and SR200 cans. Sound is better across the board with the K601. Comfort is much improved for extended listening sessions. Build quality seems higher with AKG cans in general compared to Grado and Sennheiser. My past gripe with AKG studio cans was their inefficiency. At last AKG is building reference cans that are easy to drive.

The AKG sound tends to be midrange centric. AKG nails down the midrange like nobody else I know. The highs and lows are extended from there. Everything seems part of a whole. Frequency response seems fairly flat. Bass is very extended and tight. Sound is very open with natural timbre and dynamics. There is an uncanny ability to clearly pick out individual voices and instruments in complex passages. The Varimotion technology seems to really work. I am hearing new details in my old familiar recordings.

If you find audiophile cans in this price class that do something better, they probably will not put it all together as well as the K601. The K701 and K601 are becoming known as price class leaders. I rate them 4-stars in an ultimate sense, but 5-stars at the price.

I have had build quality issues with Grado and Sennheiser, and these cans look better made.